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Physical Review Letters

Photon Mass and New Experimental Results on Longitudinal Displacements of Laser Beams near Total Reflection

Louis de Broglie, Jean Pierre Vigier

Published Apr 10, 1972• 68 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recent observations by Imbert to test predictions and observations of Goos and H\"anchen by reflecting a laser beam near the total reflection angle contradicts classical and quantum predictions for the longitudinal displacements of linearly polarized incident plane waves. They can be simply interpreted as a Stern-Gehrlach type of measurement of the photon spin, provided the photon has a nonzero rest mass.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.28.1001

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The optical analogue of quantum weak measurements has shown considerable promise for the amplification and observation of tiny optical beam shifts, namely Goos-Hänchen (GH) and Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shifts. Here, we demonstrate simultaneous weak value amplification of both the angular GH and the IF shifts in partial reflection of a fundamental Gaussian beam at planar dielectric interfaces. We employ pre and postselection schemes with appropriate linear polarization basis states for simultaneous weak measurements and amplification of both of these shifts. The experimentally observed enhancement of the beam shifts and their dependence on the angle of incidence are analyzed/interpreted via theoretical treatment of weak measurements.
As a paraxial wave packet is reflected or refracted from a planar interface separating two material media, it experiences spatial and angular shifts of its center position with respect to predictions of the geometrical ray picture. These in-plane and out-of-plane beam shifts are known as Goos-Hänchen and Imbert-Fedorov shifts, respectively. We discover a universal link between the phase-space nonseparability of an incident wave packet of any degree of spatial coherence and the reflected beam shifts. We unveil coherence Goos-Hänchen and coherence Hall effects, absent in the fully coherent limit. While the former effect can trigger a pronounced enhancement of the spatial Goos-Hänchen shift, the latter enables control of the spatial Imbert-Fedorov shift, from complete cancellation at a certain incidence angle to dramatic enhancement of the shift to giant magnitudes for nearly incoherent incident wave packets. Our results are equally applicable to optical, x-ray, and neutron, as well as matter waves, and they showcase novel phenomena in wave-matter interactions.